Now having said that, I do believe there is a place for formal wedding photography. I should note however that when I say formals, don’t think plastic plants, long candles, steps at the alter, etc. Even the most conservative of brides do not like that style now. I’d say there is a new ‘formal’ shot that is modern and more relaxed, with backgrounds not quite so sterile. #2 above lies somewhere in between. A better example would be the traditional groups posed in front of a nice garden or something.

Just a few thoughts.

I would be inclined to agree with Matt Needham: Sure, a lot of photographers would predominantly market themselves as photojournalists/natural-lighters (I try not to “categorise” myself too much, at least to clients, so much as display and discuss the images that are most representative of my style, which is a candid, perhaps a little bit of a fine art, approach). But those same (photojournalist) photographers (except purists) would *probably* also integrate some formal portraiture too – yet probably don’t advertise those shots as much or at all on their site or their blog. In that way, I sense that – even though a shift is probably occurring, toward photojournalism – more formal portraiture isn’t as dead as it may seem.

I agree with Enche Tjin as well, where he said that it should be 95% photojournalstic, 5% formal. That sounds like a good balance to me – unless of course you are a purely formal photographer, in which case I think the reverse would be more appropriate.

The other thing to note is of course that traditional, formal posing doesn’t always have to involve off-camera flash in order to be effective or suitable for aesthetic or sentimental longevity.

Good formal photography takes time, it is not a 5 minutes set up. If you try to setup formals photos in the wedding day, you’ll end up taking a big chunk of their time, and it is not fun for u, them and their guests.

Many photographers thought that candid is easy, just bang bang bang and you got it. But it is not. It is actually one of the hardest, because it takes a lot of your concentration and mental power in and out. Many things need to be considered such as perspective, timing, geometry, lighting and so on.

Today, many photographers advertise themselves as a candid photographer, but in practice they are far from that. They just shoot endlessly like machine gun and hope something great will show up later on,.. or if that doesn’t happen, they will photoshop it, which is a shame.

On photographers’ blogs and forums it may seem that way. In the real world I suspect the vast majority of photographers are offering and will continue to offer both. About half the Brides I speak with express to me that the PJ style coverage is what is most important to them, but they still want some posed photos. The other half think both styles are important. I also think what is desired and expected from the wedding photography varies in different parts of the world. I live and work in the midwest USA, and I don’t see much demand for photographers who specialize in only one style or the other. Brides expect both.

1, 2 and 3 are examples of what Not to do when shooting photography, that means messy backgrounds and intersecting lines with bodies.

I pay a lot more attention to all that stuff in the kitchen’s background than the couple kiss.

In the other side… I don’t know if Jeff Ascough (jeffascough.com) is killing “the formal portrait”… do you think so?…

maybe because I don’t know if the right word is “formal” or “fake”.

A wedding is a special moment, not to pose, but to just live it, a fake pose is not telling you the story, not even the idea of a special moment, is just a common idea of how wedding photography has to be.

Maybe people is waking up, maybe this is the time for the best ones to prevail. Renew or die.